[3] The specific name honours Theodore Monod, an explorer and naturalist who was the founder and first director of the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire.

[4] The Atlantic rubyfish has an oblong, compressed somewhat elongated body with its depth being roughly a quarter of its standard length.

Inlarger fish there is a fleshy keel on both sides of the caudal peduncle and th ecaudal fin has a deep fork.

In South America it extends along the northern coast from Cartagena, Colombia east to Caracas in Venezuela.

In West Africa it is known from Mauritania south to Angola, as well as the Cape Verde Islands and São Tomé and Príncipe.